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Docker has become a buzzword of sorts among IT organizations and professionals. Research conducted by DataDog revealed that the adoption of Docker technology had grown from 1.8% in 2014 to 8.3% in 2015 – a 500% growth increase in just 12 months time.

Designed to Run a Single App

Unlike virtual machines, Dockers are designed to run a single application. This principle encourages efficient use of resources, which in turn reduces the associated cost of the technology. With that said, it is still possible to run multiple applications in one docker container – a process that is usually performed using a supervisor.

Enhanced Security

Because Docker containers are designed to run a single application, they naturally offer a higher level of security that other forms of virtualization technology.

Ship More Software in Less Time

According to the official Docker website, organizations ship software seven times faster after deploying Docker technology in their IT ecosystem. Docker embraces the principles of Agile and DevOps to promote frequent more updates, which in turn allows for faster shipping times. And when you're able to ship products faster, you'll reap the benefits of increased sales.

Runs the Same, Regardless of Environment

Dockers allow organizations to successfully run applications within a multitude of different environments, which is in stark contrast to the use of virtual machines. Because virtual machines run apps on the operating system layer, otherwise small nuances in the environment can lead to compatibility problems. But Dockers eliminate this headache by allowing organizations to run apps in different environments.

Docker Technology is New

While containers have been around for quite some time, Docker technology is still relatively new. Docker began as a project within a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) company called dotCloud. In March 2013, Docker was released as an open source project. Since then, it has gone through a number of changes, with the GitHub project receiving more than 25,600 stars, 6,800 forks, and 1,100 contributors.

14,000 Apps and Counting

Don't let its young age fool you into thinking that there are limited apps available for Docker. Although just a couple years old (or young), there are more than 14,000 “dockerized” apps available for deployment on Docker Hub. Of course, this number will likely grow even larger and more and more organizations embrace Docker technology.

Docker is Supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

You might be surprised to learn that Docker is supported by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 operating system. Based on Fedora 19, this is the most recent version of the Red Hat Enterprise OS.

Can be Integrated into a Variety of Infrastructure Tools

Docker can be easily integrated into a wide variety of IT infrastructure tools, some of which include Amazon Web Services, Ansible, CFEngine, Chef, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Bluemix, Jelastic, Jenkins, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack Nova, and OpenSVC.

Thanks for reading and feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments below regarding Docker technology.

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